About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 4, 2000)
PUBLIIHERT MOTE) by PETE McCOMMONS DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN The Athens Clarke County Mayor and Commission's apparent mishandling of the new land use plan is beginning to look like the Clarke County Commission's mishandling of the Civic Center a decade ago. In their own minds the Mayor and Commission are trying to fix a plan they belatedly realized was "broke." In the minds of a large cross-section of the public, the question is why did the Mayor and Commission wait so late to read the plan? They paid a lot of money for it, and it has been in the works for over three years. Why, for that matter, did everybody wait so long to wake up to the plan's contents? The newspapers and the neighborhood groups along with the Realtors* and the Chamber of Commerce all sort of dozed along, confident that the plan was moving through the adoption process acceptably and on schedule. Finally, a year after the plan was supposed to be adopted, the Mayor and Commission started holding hearings to let the Realtors* and the Chamber complain about the plan. Then the Mayor and Commission started having their own com mittee meetings to "fix" the plan, and by this time various ele ments of the commu nity had woken up to the fact that the right-on Guiding Principles adopted by the Mayor and Commission two years ago didn't mean did- dledysquat. Since then the Mayor and Commission have been stonewalling it, constantly post poning action while meeting to rewrite parts of the plan and apparently making changes by telephone or at the country club or the post office or somewhere else out of earshot of the community. It is this bullheaded secretiveness and unre sponsiveness of the Mayor and Commission that have people upset, that and the sure conviction CITY PAGES Meanwhile, the whole fiasco teaches us how much we need a I' / responsive Commission. that any Realtor* worth his or her * can get a private audience with any Mayor or Commissioner any time he or she pleases. This same kind of thing happened a decade ago when the Clarke County Commission (with Marilyn Farmer leading the charge) made bad decisions, spent a million dollars, stonewalled it when the public outcry grew to a deafening crescendo and finally had to give in to public demands and scrap a bad design. By the time the Mayor and Commission get around to enacting this land use plan, we all may be urging them to delay the vote until we can understand the plan and what they have done to it. Meanwhile, the whole fiasco teaches us how much we need a responsive Commission. Commissioners can't be expected to be right all the time, but they can be expected to be responsive when a sizable segment of the citizenry feels betrayed. It seems perfectly evident that we need some new commissioners. Unfortunately, the only two who have consistently tried to look out for the public on the land use issue have been John Barrow and Ken Jordan. Jordan is retiring, but States McCarter's election would at least keep an independent voice in the District 8 seat. Barrow is up for re- election in District 4, and if he wins, he at least continues the present two-vote minority against the monolithic, developer/ Realtor*-friendly Mayor and Commission. The only possibility for change is to elect Carl Jordan to the District 6 seat now occupied by Marilyn Farmer. In this case, three citizen- friendly votes would be a lot stronger than two, with more possibilities for attracting other Commissioners to their side. Tnese issues affect us all, but only the voters in Districts 4, 6 and 8 can help us now. © THIS Mllllll W#ILH by TOM TOMORROW march 6, iqqq: the new york times raises a ■ dec. io, iqqq: a sq-couNT indictment is issued HUE AND CRT OVER A POSSIBLE SECURITY BREACH ■ AGAINST LEE, WHO IS ARRESTED AND HELD WITH- AT THE LOS ALAMOS NUCLEAR LABS. ■ OUT BAIL. CW- C/IVI SoU rceS5 1 i S \ CtiKTlCC* \ . THIS IS A MATTER of| NATIONAL SECVR- I tTY! If HE IS RE- S LEASED, MILLIONS WILL I DIE! IT'S THE ROSEN BERG CASE ALL OVER AGAIN* EXCEPT MORE IN-\ SCRUTABLE! jjy DR. WEN HO LE^WIREDTWODAYS LATER SEPT. 10, 20001 LEE IS RELEASED ■ S^PT. 16, 20001 THE TIMES RELUCTANTLY ACKNOWLEDGES THAT IT AFTER NINE MONTHS IN SOLITARY CONFINEMENT. 58 OF Sq CHARGES ARE DROPPED. UM--IT TURNS OUT HE isn’t OUlTEl AS DANGEROUS AS WE THOUGHT. BUT IT'S HIS OWN FAULT! IF HE'D BEEN A LITTLE MORE SCRUTABLE, NONE of THIS would HAVE HAPPENED! - —' *• - nm * i in# MAY HAVE PLAYED Some minor role IN THE whole AFFAIR. IT HAS COME TO OUR ATTENTION THAT CERTAIN Of OUK CRITICS FOUND OUR EDITORIAL, "HANG WEN HO LEE FROM THE NEAREST TREE AND LEAVE HIS TRAITOROUS CORPSE TO ROT IN THE BREEZE." TO BE SOMEWHAT INFLAMMATORY. WE REGRET THAT OUR in fallibility HAS BEEN CALLED INTO QUESTION— i r- —Art) WE PROMISE THAT IF WE EVER MANAGE TO DIG UP ANY REAL DIRT ON THIS GUY, WE WILL NEVER LET WIQKI ^ Japanese steak house & sushi ban ^ : m / B * n r A/ “ i- * V u F scale QDimna nt ^Reasonable Prices Sunday'Thursday 5prrr6:3opm Starting at $8.95 cJcnyaki (^huken • cJenyakj Steals Early Bird O A T Steak^& (^hickcii • Steak^&Shrimr OPECIAL Pluckenfr Shrimp Full 6 Bar • Full Sushi 6 Bar Japancse'stylc Fhhaclu ^Dishes Private 6 IAvailable G Rese mi 11 oh.s ^Accept cJ S u n d ay-T h u r s d ay 5prrr i opm Friday & Saturday 5pm' 11 pm 1 o Huntington Road WjlM.ut Shopn ing Center • Athens (706) 227M933 GA Square Mall Atlanta Highway Rafferty’s Perimeter Square /v coiSUqE®RK Offer Expires Ocotber 31 st COMMUNITIES S) f 2-4 Bedroom Apartments with Great Furnishings and Tons of Amenities! ®mwaWEMWSEPBMW • Rents Starting at $250 • Pool G Hot Tub • Individual Leases 505 Riverbend Parkway • Athens, Georgia 30605 * 353-0779 yg OCTOBER 4, 2000 FLAGPOLE IS
